Cup coffee with that.

On this day in 1885 or 1890, Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe, aka Jelly Roll Morton was born in New Orleans. His birth certificate apparently said 1890, while he said 1885. He started playing for money in brothels at 14 and by the turn of the century was looking for bigger things. He headed out on the road playing minstrel shows all over the south then headed north, first to Chicago, where he wrote the jazz standard Jelly Roll Blues in 1910 or so. It was published in 1915 and became the first jazz song ever published.

Once he got going he moved to Califiornia where he had a hit with "The Crave" then went back to Chicago in the early 20's. He was recorded and his music was sold first on piano rolls and later on records. Later that decade he moved to New York City with his wife, but hits were elusive.

In 1936 he moved to Washington DC and ran a horrible old bar called the Music Box where nothing much happened to forward his music career except that he was discovered by Alan Lomax, a historian interested in getting some of Morton's original new Orleans jazz recorded for the record of the Library of Congress. These recordings, including interviews and transcripts of interviews, are what jazz buffs remember most of his musical output as they are the truest snapshop of the birth of American jazz from the incubator that was Storyville, New Orleans.

He was stabbed at the bar he managed and was seriously wounded in 1938 and moved shortly afterwards to Los Angeles. He was never properly treated for his wounds and suffered for 3 more years before he died in 1941.